A Confidence Builder for Kids

“I’m short.” “I don’t like my hair.” “My eyes are too big.”

Too thin, too fat, too dumb, too slow: Older elementary school kids, “tweeners” and teens have endless ways of putting themselves and others down for not conforming to media-driven images of physical and fashion perfection.

The results can be devastating. Hurt feelings at best; at worst, anything from eating disorders and depression to violence to self or others.

Tonight’s short-but-to-the-point Disney Channel documentary, “Confident for Life: Kids and Body Image” (7 p.m.), while not a cure, offers young viewers some friendly, practical perspective.

At middle school peer counseling sessions, at a camp for overweight kids, at a photo shoot for plus-size models, at a hockey rink, at home and at school, boys and girls discuss feelings, media images and ways to build self-worth by recognizing and believing in their own strengths. Peers who overcame their own self-consciousness and low self-esteem talk about what worked.

Proving that perfection isn’t always what it seems, a digital retoucher shows how she makes magazine models look perfect, shrinking arms and thighs, widening eyes, straightening teeth and evening out lip lines. Lovely plus-size models talk about their more realistic body shapes.

This kid-bolstering special is another in a series from producer-director Barbara Kopple (an Academy Award-winner for her documentaries “Harlan County, U.S.A.” and “American Dream”) and executive producer and youth activist Laurie Meadoff. Their earlier joint efforts for the Disney Channel include “Friends for Life: Living With AIDS” and “Learning for Life: Kids and Learning Differences.”